The Borrible Trilogy

The Borrible Trilogy is a series of young adult books written by English writer Michael de Larrabeiti. The three volumes in the trilogy are The Borribles, The Borribles Go For Broke, and The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis. Each book contains a separate story but together they form an overall larger story, and as such should be read in succession. The books also become progressively more serious in tone and themes.

The Borrible Trilogy can be seen to subvert the mainstream of children's literature in that it does not attempt to gloss over grunge, pain, and violence. The language of the book is true to the London streets, including various instances of swearing. Though critically acclaimed, the books have been the subject of much controversy over the often graphic violence and plethora of bad language. These factors created much controversy among reviewers and contributed to the failure of the first volume of the trilogy to be paperbacked in the UK. The controversy surrounding The Borribles caused the book and its two sequels to go underground for years. However, in June 2002 the trilogy was republished in one volume in the UK by Pan Macmillan as a trade paperback with an introduction by China Miéville; in April 2003, the UK branch of Tor Books reissued the trilogy in a smaller paperback volume. Tor released the trilogy as three separate paperback volumes in the USA in late 2005.

The books have a strong anti-authoritarian flair, with the neat, orderly and boring adult...
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